Schedule & Readings

This page contains a chronological list of assignments and the topics we are covering each week as well as the readings.

  • Class meets Tue, 6-10 pm in CMU302; our Twitter hashtag is #com546
  • Office hours arranged by appointment; I can also be reached by cellphone (number distributed in-class the first evening)
  • Follow me on Twitter @kegill_uw and I will return the follow for the duration of the quarter, enabling DMs. This account is a low-volume, classes-only account. Or you can follow my primary account, @kegill (this account does not have auto-follow enabled and is higher volume). Or neither one. :-)

Topics/Speakers/Due Dates

(subject to change)

Week 1 – 29 March
Introductions, Class Overview
Class Notes | Post-Class Note

Week 2 – 5 April
History and Evolution of the Digital Age
Class Notes | Post-Class Note

Preliminary project idea due Monday 4 April at noon

Week 3 – 12 April
Frameworks and Theories: Thinking About the Internet
Class Notes | Post-class Note

Final project idea due Monday Tuesday 12 April at noon

Week 4 – 19 April
Frameworks and Theories: Diffusion and Adoption
Class Notes | Post-class Note
Group 1 Leads Discussion

Book review due Monday Tuesday 26 April at noon
(choose from selected list; try to pick a book that will relate to your project)

Week 5 – 26 April
We’ve Been Down This Road Before: From The Telegraph To The Radio
Class Notes | Post-class Note
Group 2 Leads Discussion
We will discuss books as well

Preliminary annotated bibliography due Friday 29 April at noon

Week 6 – 3 May
From Mass Communication To Customized Information
Class Notes | Post-Class Note
Group 3 Leads Discussion

Week 7 – 10 May
Frameworks and Theories: Computer-Mediated Communication and Hypertext
Class Notes | Post-Class Note
Group 4 Leads Discussion

Theoretical framework due Tuesday May 10 at noon

Week 8 – 17 May
Thinking About The Future
Class Notes | Post-class Note
Group 5 Leads Discussion

Draft presentation due Friday, 20 May @ noon
(date can’t be changed – presentations start on 24 May)
(Presentation: Collect-It, feedback given and points assigned)

Week 9 – 24 May
Thinking About The Future
Group 5 Leads Discussion
Student Presentations
Class Notes | Post-Class Note

Final presentations to be published on Slideshare.net prior to class; you also need to create a post on your course blog (prior to start of class) with a link to the Slideshare presentation.

Preliminary paper due (Catalyst) Tuesday Thursday 26 May at noon

Week 10 – 31 May
Student Presentations
Class Notes | Post-Class Note

Final presentations to be published on Slideshare.net prior to class; you also need to create a post on your course blog (prior to start of class) with a link to the Slideshare presentation.

Finals Week – 7 June (6 pm)

Final (revised) paper due with complete annotated bibliography Tuesday 7 June at 6 pm; submit via Catalyst CollectIt.

Projects will also be published as stand-alone WordPress website or a section of your course website (details on term project page – Wednesday 8 May at 6 pm). The web-delivered version of your paper should be “announced” via blog post (a best practice: think about your RSS feed as a content distribution system).

Readings

Reading posts are due noon the day of class (there are three required). Reading schedule:

  • One reading essay, weeks 2-3
  • One reading essay, weeks 4-6
  • One reading essay, weeks 7-9
  • Reading essays are due Tuesday at noon; ie, if you chose to read articles for week 3, the post is due the same week

Unless otherwise noted, readings are available in eReserve or are in the required books. (Readings may be adjusted after week 1 to reflect student interests.)

Week 2 – Due 5 April at noon
History and Evolution of the Digital Age

Week 3 – Due 12 April at noon
Frameworks and Theories: Thinking About the Internet

  • Everyone: Christensen, Seeing What’s Next – Part 1 – Using Theory to Analyze (required book)
  • Everyone: Chapter 18 from Winston
  • Everyone: “Determining Uses and Gratifications for the Internet,” from Decision Sciences, Vol 35 No 2 (March 2004), eReserve or http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3713/is_200404/ai_n9398988
  • Resource: “Uses and Gratifications Theory In The 21st Century,” T. E. Ruggiero, from Mass Communication and Society, Vol 3 No 1 (2000), PDF and eReserve
  • Resource: “Staying connected while on the move : Cell phone use and social connectedness,” R. Wei and V. Lo from New Media Society, Vol 8 No 53 (2006), eReserve
  • Resource: “Uses and Gratifications of the Web among students,” S. Ebersole from Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Vol 6 No 1 (2000).
  • Resource: “Blogging Activity Among Cancer Patients and Their Companions: Uses, Gratifications, and Predictors of Outcomes,” D.S. Chung and S. Kim from Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Vol 59 No 2 (2008), PDF
  • Resource: “A ‘uses and gratifications’ approach to understanding the role of wiki technology in enhancing teaching and learning outcomes,” 17th European Conference on Information Systems (2009), PDF.

Week 4 – Due 19 April at noon
Frameworks and Theories: Diffusion and Adoption

  • Everyone: Christensen, “Disruptive Technologies: Catching The Wave” (original HBR article, 1995, eReserve)
  • Everyone: Chapter 5 from Rogers (eReserve)
  • Everyone: Chapters 9-12 from Winston
  • Discussion Group Group 1 also reads one of these articles. Each group member is encouraged to incorporate additional external resources into the discussion — YouTube clips, current news articles, scholarly references.
    (1) Williams, F., Strover, S. and Grant, A. E. (1994). Social aspects of new media technologies. In J. Bryant J. & D. Zillmann (Eds.), Media effects: Advances in theory and research (pp. 463-482). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. eReserve
    (2) Haridakis, P. and Hanson, G. (2009). Social interaction and co-viewing with YouTube: blending mass communication reception and social connection. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 53:2. (eReserve)
    (3) Lucus, J.C. and Goh, J.M. (2009). Disruptive technology: How Kodak missed the digital photography revolution. Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 18, 46-55. (eReserve)
  • Resource: McLuhan, M. (1964). The Medium Is The Message in Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. eReserve

Week 5 – Due 26 April at noon
We’ve Been Down This Road Before: From The Telegraph To The Radio

  • Everyone: “As We May Think,” by Vannevar Bush from The Atlantic Monthly, July 1945.
  • Everyone: Christensen, “Whither Moore’s Law” (Ch 7)
  • Everyone: Chapter 13 from Winston
  • Discussion Group Group 2 also reads one of these articles. Each group member is encouraged to incorporate additional external resources into the discussion — YouTube clips, current news articles, scholarly references
    (1) “Communication Technologies and Social Control” in A Social History of American Technology by Cowan (eReserve)
    (2) “Lightening Lines and the Birth of Modern Communication, 1838-1900” in Media and the American Mind From Morse to McLuhan by Czitrom (eReserve)
    (3) “    Information and communication technology innovations: radical and disruptive?” in New Media and Society (2009) (eReserve) – a critique of Christensen
  • Resource: “Motivators for the intention to use mobile TV: a comparison of South Korean males and females” (2009) (eReserve)

Week 6 – Due 3 May at noon
From Mass Communication To Customized Information

Week 7 – Due 10 May at noon
Frameworks and Theories: Computer-Mediated Communication, Hypertext and Information Overload

Week 8 – Due 17 May at noon
Thinking About The Future

  • Everyone: “Afterword: Media Monopoly” (1997)
  • Everyone: Archivists struggle to preserve crucial records as paper gives way to pixels, http://chronicle.com/free/99/10/99101501t.htm (link is broken – article in eReserve as “Archiving-Chronicle of Higher Education”)
  • Everyone: Christensen – Breaking The Wire (Ch 10)
  • Extra-Credit Reading (stand-alone blog post/reflection/25 points) : any DL reading that you did not read for your DL session – any scholarly “Resource Reading” – or readings on this PDF (added May 1st)
  • Discussion Group 5 also reads one of these articles. Each group member is encouraged to incorporate additional external resources into the discussion — YouTube clips, current news articles, scholarly references:
    (1) Diez, E. and McIntosh, B.S. (May 2009). A review of the factors which influence the use and usefulness of information systems. Environmental Monitoring & Software 24(5).doi:10.1016/j.envsoft.2008.10.009
    (2) van de Wijngaert, L. and Bouwman, H. (2009). Would you share? Predicting the potential use of a new technology. Telematics and Informatics. doi:10.1016/j.tele.2008.01.002
    (3) Yung, Y. et al. (2009). Consumer adoption of mobile TV: Examining psychological flow and medianext term content. Computers in Human Behavior 25(1). doi:10.1016/j.chb.2008.07.011
    (4) Riley-Huff, D. A. (2009). Web Services As Public Services: Are We Supporting Our Busiest Service Point? Journal of Academic Librarianship 35(1). doi:10.1016/j.acalib.2008.10.004
  • Bonus (optional) resource:
    Riede, E. et al. (2003). The role of the Internet in national and local news media use. Journal of Online Behavior, 1(3). http://www.behavior.net/JOB/v1n3/riedel.html

Week 9 – 24 May
Thinking About The Future

  • Everyone: Christensen, Conclusion and Summary of Key Concepts
  • Extra-Credit Reading (stand-alone blog post/25 points): Effects of gratification-opportunities and gratifications-obtained on preferences of instant messaging and e-mail among college students. Telematics and Informatics, May 2009. doi:10.1016/j.tele.2008.06.001 OR any scholarly reading from your research that you believe fits over-arching course themes – the reading post must make the linkage clear.

Finals Week  

  • Final (revised) paper due with completed annotated bibliography due Tuesday 7 June at 6.00 pm
  • WordPress website or pages due Wednesday 8 June at 6.00 pm

Reading Assignment Details

Students will prepare a written reading reflection at least three times during the quarter. These mini-essays (approximately 500-600 words) should be posted to the student blog before noon the day of class. They should be substantive, be spell-checked, and integrate readings with real life experience/observation. They should be distributed throughout the quarter (to help you manage your time). These posts are due by noon the day of class.

  • There should be at least one reflection post during weeks 2-3
  • There should be at least one reflection post during weeks 4-6
  • There should be at least one reflection post during weeks 7-9

Reading examples and assessment criteria

Criteria: Does the reflection go beyond a summary to link the article(s) to course material and/or student research or work experience? Is the material posted in a timely manner and free of grammatical errors? In the discussion question post, are there three open-ended questions? [Reminder: an open-ended question cannot be answered with a one-word, yes-or-no answer.]

To conform with the blogging genre, remember to categorize the blog post “reading reflection” or “com546.”

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